RIFLING CUTTER

[mallardsx2]

Does or has anyone ever heard of an oversized rifling cutter that you could drive down your bore of your muzzleloader and shave a .001" at a time from the bore? I have a lightly pitted bore on my Hawken, and I would like to clean the bore up a bit because it is a nightmare to load with my patched rb's.

Wondering if there was anything I could press down the barrel that could "re-rifle" the barrel. Just oversize it by a .002 on each side of the bore.

Almost something like a reamer...but something that would actually cut a very SMALL amount of material off of the bore and potentially lands as well.

I am talking a very small amount of material here.

I was hoping someone sold something in step .001 .002 .003 .004 overbore.

Something similar to this:

Freshening a Rifle Barrel

 

[fishfryer]

Does or has anyone ever heard of an oversized rifling cutter that you could drive down your bore of your muzzleloader and shave a .001" at a time from the bore? I have a lightly pitted bore on my Hawken, and I would like to clean the bore up a bit because it is a nightmare to load with my patched rb's.

Wondering if there was anything I could press down the barrel that could "re-rifle" the barrel. Just oversize it by a .002 on each side of the bore.

Almost something like a reamer...but something that would actually cut a very SMALL amount of material off of the bore and potentially lands as well.

I am talking a very small amount of material here.

I was hoping someone sold something in step .001 .002 .003 .004 overbore.

Something similar to this:

Freshening a Rifle Barrel

I just had a barrel re-rifled. Pm me if interested in the details

 

[GeorgiaBob]

A friend of mine used a very, very long drill bit, sized just a tiny bit smaller than the bore and glued wet/dry sandpaper (400 then 600 or 800 grit - I think) with some light oil. I don't remember what oil he used. He initially tried to sand the bore by hand, but after getting little result, he used his drill and eventually got a pretty smooth bore. I have no idea how much he enlarged the bore, but he used the same .54 caliber bullets and balls with more consistently accurate shots.

 

[Railroader]

Thinner patch material, maybe?

I'd start with a new bronze brush on a ramrod, chucked into a drill...Maybe use some rubbing compound on it too?

 

[trad bow]

Most barrels need a though cleaning when first purchased. I used a drill motor with a cleaning rod to smooth out a Renegade barrel. That little cleaning goes a long way to making a rifled barrel or even a smooth bore shoot a lot better.

 

[transfixer]

didn't do this on a muzzleloader, but years ago I used bore swabs saturated with polishing compound and manually ran it back and forth through the barrel of my .308 mdl 700 heavy barrel, hundreds of times, my groups improved and the barrel was much easier to clean , that was about 30yrs ago, and it still shoots sub moa groups

 

[mallardsx2]

This older rifle hawken was given to me a few years ago and I have tried just about everything. I think my lubed patches are .012" if I recall..Pretty sure someone makes a .010" lubed patch or not. Honestly, nothing has really worked as the pitting must be pretty severe in the grooves.

I thought about wrapping some 500 grit on a dowel rod and putting it down the bore to see if I could at least get the lands smoothed out. I also was considering doing some "fire lapping" as I know a few guys who have had good luck doing that as well.

Not really interested in sending the gun off to be re-rifled as it isn't worth much to me. I was just hoping to make it functional so I could at least load the rifle.

 

[mallardsx2]

I did see one guy on youtube who used an undersized parch jag with some scotchbrite and it seemed to really help him. So Maybe I will give that a try and see what happens.

 

[transfixer]

This older rifle hawken was given to me a few years ago and I have tried just about everything. I think my lubed patches are .012" if I recall..Pretty sure someone makes a .010" lubed patch or not. Honestly, nothing has really worked as the pitting must be pretty severe in the grooves.

I thought about wrapping some 500 grit on a dowel rod and putting it down the bore to see if I could at least get the lands smoothed out. I also was considering doing some "fire lapping" as I know a few guys who have had good luck doing that as well.

Not really interested in sending the gun off to be re-rifled as it isn't worth much to me. I was just hoping to make it functional so I could at least load the rifle.

try putting some rubbing compound on some patches and running it back and forth, I didn't need anything quite that abrasive as I was simply trying to polish out any imperfections, I would do mine as I was sitting around watching tv, over a period of a couple weeks or more,

You probably can't get all the spots out, but you should be able to improve the slickness of the inside of the barrel,

 

[mallardsx2]

I shot a buck a few years back with this gun and needed a follow-up shot, missed on the follow-up shot and then broke the ramrod trying to get a 3rd shot loaded. Things only went downhill from there. But I did eventually get the deer killed.

After that incident I cleaned the rifle and filled the bore with grease and hung it up. Now I am thinking about pulling it back down.

 

[GeorgiaBob]

@transfixer got me thinking - after reading your follow up comments - it seems you might be happier with just a smooth bore. Resizing is, if I remember my friend's complaints correctly, a lot more work. But if all the rusticles and protrusions inside the bore were smoothed off, you should be able to load, and reload, with less angst.

I have a 180 year old .45 caliber long rifle converted to percussion in the 1850s. When I got the rifle the bore was dry, but years of neglect had left the inside well short of "smooth." I did much like transfixer suggested but used a cleaning rod and wire brushes instead of patches, with polishing compound, to work it over. The brass wire brushes were not adequate for the task, but I found a steel wire .45 brush (from trackofthewolf.com - I think) and I dang near wore that brush out.

The result was not a perfectly smooth shiny bore. It was much smoother and the worst of the rust and bumps on the lands were reduced. I noticed that it also smoothed the edges of the grooves which may have been an even more important help in making it easier to load!

Due to the age, and questionable stability of the metal, I have only fired that rifle a couple of times, but I can get a patched ball down the bore without too much difficulty.

(Now I just need to figure out how to repair/replace the hammer I broke when I [stupidly] tried to force the assembly back together, the wrong way, the last time I took it apart for a thorough degreasing and oiling.)

 

[F.A.R.R.]

Another thing to consider trying is wrapping Brownells steel sponge material around a brush and working it in the bore, followed by JB bore compound .